As it is generally known, in computer-based communications, instant messaging systems enable instant communications between two or more people over a communication network such as the Internet. Instant messaging typically requires the use of a client program to provide an instant messaging service. Instant messaging differs from electronic mail (“email”) in that conversations happen in real-time. Instant messaging sessions are sometimes referred to as “chat” sessions. Examples of existing instant messaging technologies include Qnext, MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Skype, Google Talk, .NET Messenger Service, Jabber, QQ, iChat and ICQ, and Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
In previous instant messaging applications, a user first initiates a chat session with at least one chat partner. After the session is initiated, information is passed back and forth between the session participants, and is displayed in a transcript area of the application user interface. A problem occurs, however, if a participant wants to further discuss or follow-up on a comment with only a subset of the participants in the chat session. Using existing systems, to accomplish this, the participant must either start a separate side chat session with only those users that are desired, or wait to follow-up later with phone calls or an e-mail conversation. This problem flows from the fact that previous systems have failed to provide any way for multiple chat session participants to flag the same message within a chat session, or for chat session participants to control which other participants can see a flag that they set, either during the chat session or after the chat session has ended.
Accordingly, in order to support more effective sharing of information communicated in a chat session, it would be desirable to have a new system for flagging chat session information that allows multiple session participants to flag the same message, and that allows a participant setting a flag in the chat session to control which other participants are able to see the flag. The new system should further support these features both during the chat session and subsequent to the end of the chat session.